Disney Plans 2nd Amusement Park In California

Walt Disney Co. has completed plans to build a second amusement park in Anaheim, Calif., after five years of delays and false starts and expects to announce the details next month.

The new designs and concept - still being kept secret by company officials - resolve tough questions about economic feasibility that dogged previous efforts to build an amusement center next to Disneyland. A key remaining issue is a bankruptcy court squabble over control of the Grand Hotel near the park site.

''We are about six weeks from a public announcement,'' said Peter S. Rummell, president of Disney Design and Development, the creative and building arm of the entertainment company.

Disney abandoned plans for a nearly $3 billion world's fair theme park and resort complex, called Westcot, in 1994 over concern that the project would not meet the profit goals the company had set.

The newly designed theme park will take five years to build. The park will contain some elements similar to Westcot but will have a new theme that Disney officials say they'll disclose at their public launch.

According to the plan, the park would be the cornerstone of a $2 billion expansion of Disney's amusement, hotel, restaurant and shopping holdings surrounding Disneyland.

''There are still a few more details. We just don't want to have another false start,'' Rummell said.

Rummell and other Disney officials would only say the new park will have rides, shows and activities. Some new hotels may be located on the park grounds.

In building the second theme park and what will likely be thousands of hotel rooms, Disney will transform its Disneyland complex into a more expansive resort.

The development will shore up the company's crown jewel, Disneyland, and meet competitive threats from expansion plans at Universal Studios Hollywood and the opening last year of Hurricane Harbor, a water park.

''Obviously, we have things very close, or we wouldn't be so ready to go public,'' said Paul Pressler, Disneyland president.

The fate of the Grand Hotel, several blocks from Disneyland, is one of the last issues delaying a detailed public announcement of Disney's expansion plans.

Disney has offered $12.2 million to purchase the 11-acre hotel site. A hearing on the purchase is scheduled for Thursday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Los Angeles. When Disney announced its Westcot plans in 1991, it had an option to buy the property for upward of $27 million.

In addition to a traditional theme park, Rummell said, the expansion plan includes a nightclub and entertainment area. The night-life component would be a more immediate cash generator than the theme park and would take less time and a smaller investment to construct.

''We might not announce it at the same time, but that's something we can get built in 18 months,'' Pressler said.

The second theme park and Disneyland Resort expansion are part of a series of broad initiatives Disney is pursuing in Orange County, Calif.

Disney, owner of the Mighty Ducks of the National Hockey League, is in the final stages of negotiating the purchase of 25 percent and management control of the California Angels baseball team. Disney is bargaining with Anaheim over how much should be spent on converting Anaheim Stadium to a baseball-only park. It has set a March 17 deadline for the negotiations to conclude.

The company also is discussing with Anaheim officials a potential involvement in the giant Sportstown complex planned for the area near Anaheim Stadium and Arrowhead Pond.

The development would convert the current stadium and add a football stadium, a youth sports center and blocks of restaurants with sports themes and shopping establishments. Eisner has said Disney would like to obtain a National Football League franchise and might locate the team in Anaheim.

Finally, Disney has plans to build a resort in the Newport Coast development.